Additive Manufacturing UK (AMUK) said during the recently concluded 2026 Commonwealth Games in Glasgow that many of the performance-critical components in competition were additively manufactured.
These parts were built into handlebars, swimming equipment, or adapted gear for para-sport athletes.
One member company whose work illustrates this is 76 Additive, a 3D printing service provider founded by Rob Johnson. The company has produced competition-grade components used by British athletes at both the Olympics and Paralympics.
Among them is a custom grip and computer mount for para triathlete Claire Cashmore that she used at the Tokyo 2020 Games, and lattice-structured aero bars made for aerodynamic cycling & triathlon products manufacturer Drag2Zero that were used by the British triathlon mixed relay team that won Olympic gold.
Joshua Dugdale, Head of AMUK, said, “Elite sport shows why additive manufacturing has moved far beyond a prototyping niche. When fractions of a second matter, engineers need lighter parts, faster design iteration and geometries that conventional manufacturing cannot easily deliver. Those same capabilities are strengthening production, supply chains and innovation across UK industry. Sport makes the benefits visible, but the industrial opportunity is much bigger.”
When Athlete-Specific Parts Need Flexibility
The Cashmore mount was designed and manufactured around the athlete’s individual anatomy and ergonomic requirements. With traditional processes like injection molding or CNC machining, that kind of one-off component is often economically impractical because of the cost of producing tooling for a single unit.
Additive manufacturing avoids that problem because the same machine and process used to prototype a part can also produce the finished version, with no mold or cutting tool required in between.
The company also produces a swimming training aid called the EZ Gains Hydroglide, which combines two different printing technologies in a single product. The rigid structural sections are made from nylon using HP’s Multi Jet Fusion (MJF) process, while the flexible portions are elastomer lattice parts produced through Carbon DLS. Each material and process handles a different mechanical function within the same device.
Johnson says the starting point across all of these projects is always the athlete and the performance problem, not the constraints of a particular manufacturing method. Once fit, “we can refine fit, stiffness, weight and function rapidly, then manufacture the finished component repeatably. That is not novelty 3D printing; it is practical, high-performance production.”
The Case for Repeatable Customization
The cost problem Johnson describes is not unique to his company’s projects. British para-triathlete Joe Townsend turned to Markforged’s continuous carbon fiber 3D printing technology to produce a custom crankarm for his handbike and custom gloves for wheelchair racing.
In a separate project, Markforged’s Stockholm-based partner 3D Verkstan found that some custom parts for a tandem cycle drivetrain were costing up to £3,000, prompting it to 3D print prototype components instead. His experience illustrates the same constraint that runs through 76 Additive’s work, where equipment has to be customized to individual athletes and conventional manufacturing can make such low-volume parts costly.
The Korean archery team’s record at the 2020 Olympics reinforces the point. Hyundai has been producing customized 3D printed bow grips for the team since Rio 2016, with each grip tailored to the individual athlete’s hand shape and material preference. The team won gold in the men’s, women’s, and mixed categories at Tokyo 2020 using those grips.
Hyundai had also improved the grips it had provided since 2016, showing how AM can support the refinement of customized equipment as athlete requirements and material preferences change.
3D Printing Industry is inviting speakers for its 2026 Additive Manufacturing Applications (AMA) series, covering Energy, Healthcare, Automotive and Mobility, Aerospace, Space and Defense, and Software. Each online event focuses on real production deployments, qualification, and supply chain integration. Practitioners interested in contributing can complete the call for speakers form here.
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Featured image shows the custom grip and computer mount 76 Additive produced for para triathlete Claire Cashmore ahead of Tokyo 2020. Photo via 76 Additive.
